


Battling (for Ice Cream)

by Maidenjedi



Category: Firefly
Genre: Drabble, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-15
Updated: 2012-07-15
Packaged: 2017-11-10 01:05:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/460523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maidenjedi/pseuds/Maidenjedi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mal and Saffron and ice cream.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Battling (for Ice Cream)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ninepointfivemm](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=ninepointfivemm).



> Drabble written in 2009 for ninepointfivemm on LJ, prompt "battling for ice cream."

The only good thing about crash landing on this gorram hotter'n'hell dirtball excuse for a planet was the bar in Nángān. And the only good thing about the bar in Nángān, as anyone in the 'verse could tell you, is the ice cream, which was just barely compensation enough for the fact that Saffron, or Bridget or Yolanda or whatever her name was, happened to be in Nángān, up to Lord only knows what sort of mischief and trouble.

The ice cream, though, was what Inara might have called an enticement. Jayne, who was along for the trip into town for parts, called it a just reward. Kaylee just giggled, her wide-eyed expression dimmed not even for the bu huihen de pofu Saffron.

Mal had tasted ice cream only once in his life, during a very brief stint in an infirmary camp a year before the Battle of Serenity Valley. It had been a melty, messy experience then, but the sweet taste had lingered and been remembered through many a starving day and night. His first bite this time recalled that moment perfectly - except that the face of that feng le wench made swallowing difficult.

"Well. Saffron. Or are you going by something a bit more colloquial these days? Qiang, perhaps?"

"Chi ni de, Malcolm Reynolds." Her voice was, for once, not a bit confrontational or coquettish. She sounded tired.

Jayne came to Mal's side and leaned down to stage-whisper, "I can shoot her, Mal, or I can punch her. Your call."

Mal shook his head. "We didn't come here to fight."

Saffron, who was actually going by Meifeng and wore what appeared to be a wig of a french braid (undoubtedly making the heat here even worse), looked torn between relief and annoyance. She landed on neither and settled for exhausted. "What are you doing in Nángān, Mal? Didn't take you for a dairy farmer." The planet's terraforming had made it a popular place for cattle grazing, but no one had planned on the Nineteen Year Drought, which was actually more like a Thirty Year Drought but people had stopped counting. The ice cream was synthetic, and some, the more cynical, said that was the only kind appropriate in this day and age.

"We crash-landed, about three miles or so outside town. Came in for parts. Staying for the ice cream. And you?" Mal's left hand rested on his hip, near his gun. He didn't trust her, figured her for acting a part no matter the circumstances.

She smirked, eyes trained on Mal's hand, his fingers splayed in such a way as to be suggestive to only a woman like Saffron. "Why, Mal," she drawled.

He put his hand up on the counter, not wanting to debate or flirt with her. The drawl really was an act, and as he peered closer into her face, he saw traces of healing cuts and a yellowed bruise under her eye.

He pushed his ice cream, of which he'd taken only that first sweet, agonizing bite, toward her and offered the spoon.

**Author's Note:**

> Feng le: crazy  
> Bu huihen de pofu: remorseless harridan  
> Chi ni de: screw you, or literally, eat yours  
> Qiang: female name meaning "spear"  
> Meifeng: female name meaning "beautiful wind"
> 
> Nángān is a real city in China. Wikipedia tells me the population is less than 6000.


End file.
